Beauty as it should be than what it is defined as by Society …

Sunday, September 14, 2014
Hiba Moeen
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When you ask people the definition of the word, ‘beautiful’, almost everyone would have different responses, however, if they are asked to define a beautiful woman, there is no doubt that their responses would be quite universal. From fairness creams to beauty soaps and various other beauty products, the image of a beautiful woman is quite over stated, with fanatics defining what she should actually look like.Thanks to local opinion leaders on television launching their own products who also indirectly claim that fairness is the acceptable norm or is portrayed as the declaration of a woman’s beauty. Such a mindset hinders societies from progressing and drags them towards decadence each step at a time. No matter how dark skinned the endorser or the brand owner is himself/herself, Photoshop is always the best friend in such circumstances considering an appeal to emotion. Why would anyone who is dark herself want to project the sign of beauty as being fair skinned? Instead that person should shun such thoughts and endorse the darker tone of skin as the reflection of a beautiful woman. Being brainy is what constitutes being attractive but invain.India, for instance, witnessed one such brave transformation where the organization, ‘Women of Worth’ launched a campaign titling it, ‘Stay Unfair, Stay Beautiful’ with actress Nandita Das being the face of it. “In a country where 90% of people are dark, it is sad that we grow up with such an inferiority complex about it,” says Das.

Therefore, beauty is a woman’s confidence, it’s her mind and soul, and something radiated when she is happy from within, rather than being an appearance or gadget defined through the lens of societal pressure. In a study carried out by Dove in 2010, it was revealed that only 4% of women globally would define themselves as beautiful, the brand thus embarked on a worldwide journey to uncover their beauty potential and make them realize their own true worth, thus empowering them altogether.In what became the Viral Campaign of the Year, Dove invited a group of women and an FBI sketch artist to participate in a study of the image of women’s actual self versus the perceived self. When the same women were asked to describe themselves so that the sketch artist could draw their portraits, their own verbal descriptions revealed their insecurities and an understatement of their own images which were projected as being less attractive. However, based on the observation of a stranger, when the same portraits were drawn, the difference was quite notable with the stranger descriptions being comparatively better and vibrant.This concluded that women are usually overly critical of their appearance and do not realize how good looking they actually are. The video was translated in 25 different languages and uploaded on 33 of Dove’s Youtube channels with almost 135 million views from 110 countries.

With the world progressing with such creative ideas to explore the real meaning of being beautiful why are we still living in a shell that still has outdated meanings and synonyms to define women? One of the first few steps towards empowering women is by making the same gender realize the concept of beauty and how women should be perceived as attractive than being judged according to what they should look like.

For all the aapa’s and baji’s out there who are promoting their products based on obsolete marketing tactics for the ideal Kaali mai to become gori, gori to make their dreams come true, please do realize that you are selling self-loathing nightmares to undermine their image.Beauty is what lies within; in the form of confidence, education, determination and strength and not something that can be judged based on the first impression regarding looks and appearance.